While healthcare providers come into contact with many risks to their own health, they probably don’t suspect that the chemicals they use to sterilize equipment and surfaces could be affecting their reproductive health. Researchers presenting their work today at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have shown otherwise, identifying an occupational risk to female nurses’ fertility: exposure to high-level disinfectants.

Questions about IVF and increased risk of cancer have abounded through the roughly three decades that the treatment has been in use. Tuesday, at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam share the results of two nationwide cohort studies showing that women who have had ovarian stimulation for IVF are not at increased risk of developing cancer of the colon or endometrium.

Scientists from Northwestern University presented research at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine that explored the considerable psychological toll that uterine fibroids take on patients.

It is known that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals can interfere with sexual function in men; in a study discussed at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, researchers present evidence that environmental exposure to phthalates might cause lower levels of interest in sexual activity in premenopausal women.

Research presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s 70th Annual Meeting revealed that physicians treating menopausal patients felt it was very important that their patients be well informed, and that the specialty of the physician and when they trained had an impact on the care they provided.